Teachers' poor pay just myth

Scottsdale Republic ^ | Craig J. Cantoni

[hsmomx3]

Contrary to union propaganda, teachers are not underpaid. I say this as someone with 28 years of experience in conducting salary surveys and designing pay plans.

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, local elementary school teachers earn about the same average pay on an hourly basis as local reporters ($23.74). They also earn more than microbiologists ($20.60), zoologists ($17.36) and accountants ($22.49). Secondary school teachers even earn more per hour than civil engineers.

[Dianna]

I just happen to call a spade a spade. NOT all teachers are cut from the NEA cloth, and I refuse to lump them all together.

Thank you, we appreciate it. Starting pay in Kentucky is 25k per year. After 7 years in college, but concidering vacation time, I think the salary seems reasonable.

There are so many problems in public school, why are we subjected to article after article of squabbling about teacher pay? Ok, many people here think teachers whine too much about their pay. I'm sure many do. Is the percentage any higher than the Navy wives (stay at home moms, every one of them) I spent 9 years with? Nope, not a chance.

[oldironsides]

Check out South Carolina. They work for the state, no union plus crappy pay. I don't know why anyone would teach there

[Lady Eileen]

I understand what you are saying, however the NEA and union teachers have no one to blame but themselves. Parents are told, as a whole, that the teachers and NEA always know best. They encouage parents, again as a whole, to turn the kids over to them because only they know how to teach and what a child needs during development.

Posted by Lady Eileen to ppaul On News/Activism 06/10/2003 9:22 AM EDT #80 of 83  

ppaul:The teachers unions and administration bureaucrats will fight to protect their inflated salaries, perks, and benefits. So, parents with kids in public schools: Realize that you're already homeschooling. But we're all getting suckered by the gubbamint "school" monpoly in which we have no choice.

Lady Eileen: The NEA is just another self-centered monopoly union that is determined to protect the above-market wages of its members and their jobs at all cost. They are enemies of America and of real education and liberty in America.

But they aren't half the problem of parents content to hand over their children to be educated in a socialist system instead of insisting on the complete return of their exclusive, God-given authority and responsibility to raise their children. It doesn't "take a village" to educate a child, even if that village is called a "public school."

[Diva Betsy Ross]

Listen here, to you buddy, I am not asking what you will or will not do with your cloth. I call a spade a spade and I say MOST teachers are glorified civil servants. I am also in a conservative school district, if there can be such a thing. The NEA is child abuse, and it is supported by taxpayers. Some of us have a problem with that. Teachers who join the unions, no matter the excuse, are part of the problem. Pure and simple.

None of the teachers I know are thankful for a thing , or believe they get their fair share already. I refuse to buy their baloney or their party line.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

I admit some parents should no thomeschool their kids, some should no tsend their kids to public school, some should never, ever have had kids inthe first palce. But here is the cut: who am I to say in America how one should raise their children? I support other people's choice because I want mine. I homeschool, and I support public education. I am forced to support the NEA and lazy teachers through extortion of my tax money. I will never support them in any other way.

BTW ,thousands of people who send their children to public school drink too much, do drugs, murder and molest their children. Many do not spend time with their kids, and are so self centered they put their own needs before those of their own children. Many hundreds of people who put their children in public school have children sho have sex at an early age, producing more children out of wedlock and live off of welfare for their entire lives.

What is the point.

[CyberCowboy777]

I always felt that those homeschoolers who are continually in the geo./spelling were being taught just spelling or geography by their parents.

A myth. Home Schooled student regularly test higher at all levels and all subjects.

An example of a Home Taught student who has won: the young man who won the Geo. bee this year also competed in the national science and spelling competitions. I'd say that was well rounded - what subject do you think he is not learning?

[CyberCowboy777]

Private schools are a better comparision.

Which is better?

[CyberCowboy777]

parents will be bringing in school supplies (including paper towels, napkins, soap, etc.)

What the hell am I paying 60% + of my taxes for?

[CyberCowboy777]

I guess having a grandmother, grandfather and mother who are teachers doesn't qualify me, huh?

Not for much....... well maybe as biased

[CyberCowboy777]

you have to admit that it is a possibility

That some public school teachers are pedophiles?

The statistics prove out that a child is better off on average in a Private or Home School over a Public meat packing facilities (opps... I mean school). Can weird things happen at home...yep - no more than a school though.

Our schools have been scientifically designed to prevent over-education from happening...The average American [should be] content with their humble role in life, because they're not tempted to think about any other role."
- William Harris, U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1889

[CyberCowboy777]

How many parents who home-school their kids have college degrees? High School Diplomas?

You need to look that up, you are seriously behind the times in your ideas. There is plenty of data showing that Home School options are most taken by educated, affluent, middle/upper middle class families.

Poor and poorly educated people are forced to send their kids to public schools, perpetuating the cycle of poverty and poor education. The new plantations.

[dogbyte12]

There is no comparison between private/homeschool, and public school.

If you send your kid to private school or you homeschool them, you automatically care about your kid's education. The same can not be said about public education students.

You think office work is stressful? How about having people hopped up on drugs, carrying guns and knives around, gangs, pregnant 14 year olds, kids who get beaten by their parents (if they are around), the fear of another Columbine around the corner, and some people think life in the public schools is a picnic?

Those of you who claim teachers have it easy, go ahead and work in Compton. Heck, you might even get your summers off, with "sweet pay". Go put in 7 hours while you drive in past grafitti, liquor stores on every other corner, bars on window, and drug dealers out on the street. Know for a fact that if you discipline the wrong child that your tires will get slashed, or you will be physically accosted. You don't know which kid is carrying a weapon in their backpack either. The parents are on welfare, don't show up to parent conferences, and the kids watch 7 hours of tv at night instead of doing homework because the notes you write home about their kids progress is ignored.

Yeah, good luck. I could never teach in the inner city and keep my sanity. So I admit it, and don't criticize the ones who do, for having it easy.

It is one thing to knock the NEA(who deserves it), but there are tens of thousands of teachers who bust their tails every day, dealing with all of societies ills with dozens upon dozens of different kids, with their different problems needed to be addressed even before they are ready and willing to learn.

If one parent has a hard time with their one kid, imagine trying to teach algebra to 40 of them. Not all teachers work in Mayberry. People here need to quit kidding themselves. It's a warzone out there, and teachers are often in the crossfire from all directions. Crappy unions, crappy administrators, parents who don't give a rip, thugs in the class who belong in jail. These people need prayers, not to be told they are living la vida loca.

[Straight Vermonter]

We have had repeated strikes (or threats of strikes) in Vermont by teacher's unions over benefits. The teacher are not willing to pay 1 dollar of their healthcare benefits. The teachers in my town threatened to go on strike if they did not get 21 sick days a year. Can you imagine 21 sick days a year?

[KneelBeforeZod]

My friend's mother in law teaches "home economics" in Modesto, CA. She gets $50K a year, and doesn't even have a full day of classes.

This is probably twice as much as most of the people in Modesto make.

Just another lie by the unions, like the "class size" nonsense. I'm still waiting for the CTA (CA teachers assoc) to explain how class size has anything to do with learning... when foreign kids who speak zero english, had 50-70 kids in their class overseas show up and are on the honor roll 3 years later.

lazy, uninterested parents make for lousy students...and teachers are taking advantage of this opportunity

The most transparent of the teachers unions money grubbing lies is that charter/challenger schools are racist/elitest because they shut out poor kids... then they turn around and oppose vouchers.

[KneelBeforeZod]

My sister is also a teacher/liberal...

But I bet my sister is more flaming liberal than your sister. She isn't a lesbian though.

but for comparisons sake, my sister:

Has Masters in education from USA-hating harvard

Got into PhD program at UCLA for something about political art in murals

had picture of "Che" painted *ON* her wall...

[CyberCowboy777]

That happens to be one exception.

Look up all the past Home schooled winners of Geography, Spelling and Science national competitions and show me something other than your speculation.